Gaming w/Jemal : Circle of Champions OOC (Full for now)

So I've been considering a game for a while. The premise is a world nearly destroyed by a combination of high-tech, magic, and super-beings.
The year is ~2100. The 21st century saw an explosion of technological advances, genetic mutations causing super-men, the return of magic to the world, and the reveal of the previously hidden supernatural community. A busy century of revelation to be sure.

Unfortunately, the rapid scaling up of new powers in the world lead to the third great war, which nearly ended humanity.
The war was finally ended by an enormously powerful warlock, who forced a ceasefire and proposed an alternative.

Thus was born the arena. It started as an alternative to the war which had wreaked havoc on civilization but quickly grew into something more. Arena matches are now the primary form of both dispute resolution, and entertainment. There's nothing the masses like more than watching exceptionally powerful beings beat the snot out of each other.

The players in this game will be a relatively new team of arena champions. The setting is purposely as open as possible, you can be magical, fantastical, tech, mutant, supernatural, mythical, etc, etc. The only origin I'm against is extra-terrestrial.

I'll be using the mutants & masterminds rules simply because it gives (IMO) the best combination of freedom to create whatever you want while being much easier to balance than other point based systems or D&D.
Creation rules and more info will be posted later, just wanted to get this up and get initial reactions to the concept first.

If you're not familiar with M&M but like the concept, there are people (myself included) who are always willing to help.

To Players:
This is not a standard M&M game. It is not about 'super-heroes'. Thats not to say you're not allowed to be heroic, or dress in a costume - both are more than welcome in the Arena! What it means is that the arena is a souped-up version of things like Pro Wrestling, Ultimate Fighting, and medieval Jousting.
While you are IN the arena, It is primarily about Combat (With some deadly traps and other tricks thrown in to keep champions on their toes).
This game can either be a straight forward "Dungeon Crawl"-like campaign or, if the players so wish, you can choose to immerse your characters into the greater scheme of things, garnering support and taking things into your own hands using your exploits in the arena.

What I like about this is that it makes for a relatively easy to run, fun, fast paced campaign that has the potential to become more in depth if it suits the players interests.

The basic structure of the game will consist of a match (Taking however long it takes for the PC champions to win or loose), followed by a week or two of downtime (Both in and out of character) before another match is lined up.
If the characters are enjoying RPing/interacting with the outside world, the downtime could be extended, and it will not always be the same amount of time IN game as it is OUT of game (obviously).

Characters:
Characters will be built at PL 8 with 120pp. Advancement should be fairly quick.

Please keep in mind that you can play practically ANYTHING - Dragon, robot, super-person, psychic, Powersuit, mage, Ninja... If you have an idea but aren't sure how to build it, post your concept and I'll try to work with you to figure out how to make it happen.

One thing I like to do with all my games is give a bit of extra leeway in how characters are created, giving 'traits' out. For this game I've decided to keep it fairly simple with just my two standard ones. Each character gets one of the following traits (Please note it with your PL at the top of your character sheet), your character is either Powerful, or has Potential.
Powerful characters have more points than usual - they start with 10 extra pp (total of 130).
Potential characters can reach greater heights than usual - they are one PL higher (PL 9), for purposes of determining their COMBAT caps (Dodge, parry, toughness, attack, and save dc)

Things I don't want:
There is a small list of things I don't want in the game, they include Ghosts (Insubstantial), Super speed (Anything faster than about rank 4 speed), Aliens (Characters from another planet), high ranks of Regen, and immortality/healing
*Note: If you wish to play an 'immortal' character, I have no problems with immunity to aging, it's the immunity to Death part I have problems with.
If you wish to play a classic supernatural archetype such as a vampire, I will allow LOW-level immortality(Max 5 = 1 day) with a mandatory Limitation that does not lower the cost, and applies any/all appropriate ways to keep that creature type dead. (Trolls=burning, vampires = sunlight/beheading/staking, etc)

Some Motivations champions might have to be arena champions:Fame/Fortune - the two most obvious advantages to being a champion are the money and celebrity. The 'games' are viewable globally, and many champions/teams are in it soley as a profession.Thrills/fun/bloodlust - Some champions join the arena because its the greatest rush on the planet, others because it's the only way they can use their powers for violence without drawing the wrath of the Champions Circle.*More on the Circle later*Cause - There are Champions dedicated to certain causes or who have pledged their skills to a specific state/organization. This is not to say they'll ONLY fight for that cause/organization, but they will never accept a match opposing it in any way, or that helps a direct competitor to their cause/liege.Power - Last but certainly not least, being an Arena Champion can give one a tremendous amount of political power. Champions tend to gain the support of the people, as well as other champions. With this type of support, and their own powerful presence in the Arena, many champions are able to force their own agendas, calling for matches to change laws/rulings or even place themselves into positions of authority. All such matches must, of course, be sanctioned by the Champions Circle.

(Your Champion could have other motivations, but these are the most common)

Champions Circle -
The Circle is the closest thing the earth has ever had to a global ruling body. It consists of the most powerful and influential Champions on the planet, and they are the final arbiters of Arena Matches. They have last say in whether or not a dispute calls for a match. Though they have the (Self-imposed) authority to go against the wishes of the people, they will only do so in exceptional cases, usually allowing a match to go forward if it has enough public support.

The World -
I'm purposely leaving much of the background for the world open for two reasons.
A - If this ends up being a straight forward dungeon-crawly campaign, it's not really needed.
B - If this ends up being more in depth, I'd like the players to have a hand in creating the world as well.
If you have any specific questions/suggestions PLEASE feel free to post them.

The characters will be starting in the state of New York, which is one of the largest states in the world, comprising of about a quarter of North america, ruling over the areas formerly known as Virginia, Ohio, New York, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Vermont, New Hampshire, and the majority of what used to be the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec.
The state is Governed by a council of 6 Ex-arena Champions, who have held power for 7 years, and have moderate support of the people.

TL; DR = JOIN MY GAME!

Last edited by Jemal; Sunday, 17th June, 2012 at 01:18 AM.
Reason: Changed my mind on the Power Level.

Intelligence is the capacity to understand old Ideas.
Imagination is the ability to come up with New Ideas.

Wow, I sincerely don't know why your f*cking games always catch my attnetion so powerfully! I'm swamped with work and struggling to survive in academia, a very competitive world, however I feel I NEED to play in this game! SO I'll throw my hat in. Don't know with what, but I'll come up with something.
Congrats for another thrilling game idea Jemal!

Visit The Link Village of Voda Vosa in the RG for complete game links, and stuff!

aye, just got back tonight. Great time up north, so beautiful and relaxing.

Was a bit disappointed there weren't more posts to this thread while I was gone. Hope more people get interested.

As to your questions, HM - Not a 'superhero' group per se, but you WILL be fighting as a team, and since you're basically 'competitive sports professionals' as far as this world is concerned, your characters should mesh well.
You are not together by chance, you came together as a team because you work well together and/or have similar goals.

Doesn't mean you have to follow any sort of theme or anything (All cowboys or all high-tech, etc), but the characters should work well together, and some teamwork/combos/synergy would be a nice touch.

Last edited by Jemal; Monday, 25th June, 2012 at 09:00 AM.

Intelligence is the capacity to understand old Ideas.
Imagination is the ability to come up with New Ideas.

Sorry. Usually I leap at your games, but an arena-style combat scenario doesn't really fire me up much. Also, I dunno if you mean 2nd or 3rd edition rules...but really it's more the scenario in general.

Couple things to clarify -
First, When I say Arena, it's more 'hunger games/Running man' style arena than 'Gladiator'. Kind of dungeon-crawl/adventure-esque (Different arenas being different areas - urban sprawl, dungeon, wilderness, etc). And as noted before, there is potential for out-of-arena roleplaying and political/corporate/etc maneuvering if the PC's so wish. I just wanted to start something up that has an easy to run basis with potential, rather than trying a grand story from the start... Not that I'm trying to convince people to join us or anything... *innocent whistle*

Secondly, I'll be using 3e assuming it's available to the players.

Last edited by Jemal; Monday, 25th June, 2012 at 09:47 AM.

Intelligence is the capacity to understand old Ideas.
Imagination is the ability to come up with New Ideas.